Author Archives: David

Anglican Bishops in a 3-way

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On same sex-marriage, the ACoC bishops fall into one of the following categories: No, Yes and Maybe.

Fred Hiltz thinks – as does Justin Welby – that the three can co-exist, walk together to use Anglican jargon. They can’t for one simple reason: liberals will not stop promoting their same-sex marriage agenda – ever; not until they have their way.

Once again the “spirit” – not, I am quite sure, the Holy Spirit – is invoked to legitimise what for 2000 years the church has deemed illegitimate. How could this not be the spirit of the age?

Read it all here:

When it comes to allowing same-sex marriage, the bishops seem to be thinking “yes,” “no” and “maybe” in roughly equal proportions, Hiltz said. A number of bishops in the Canadian church also have a “holy desire” to consider alternatives to a simple yes-no vote on same-sex marriages, he said. Some have given considerable thought to other alternatives, and these are likely to be the main topic of conversation when the House of Bishops next meets in April, he added.

The article makes perfectly it clear, once again, that the main preoccupation of Western Anglican bishops is sex – just like everyone else. The comical thing about this is that the bishops genuinely seem to believe it will garner the world’s approval when all it does is heap well deserved derision on an institution that tries to do what everyone else does but ends up doing it with less panache.

Anglicans to dwell in caves

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Japanese Anglicans want to ban generating electricity using nuclear power.

From here:

On the fifth anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011, the Anglican Church in Japan is reissuing its call for a world without nuclear power plants.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused devastation – claiming 15,893 lives, with 2,572 still missing – and triggered a nuclear disaster, with meltdowns in three reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

A 20km area around the power plant remains off limits due to contamination – and residents outside the exclusion zone are living in fear of radiation poisoning.

Having worked with survivors of the disaster, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK, Anglican Church in Japan) is calling on the Anglican Communion to join its call to put a stop to nuclear power.

Anglicans everywhere else want to ban generating electricity using fossil fuels.

The most troubling aspect of all this is: with only useless windmills and solar power at his disposal, how is Fred Hiltz going to ignite the leaves for his mandatory monthly smudging ceremony?

Bishop John Chapman reacts to retreat from same-sex marriage

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The bishop of Ottawa expressed his mortification at the decision from the recent House of Bishops’ meeting not to support same-sex marriage.

He has issued a statement in which he rather smugly congratulates himself and his diocese for being consummately inclusive while at the same time lauding same-sex couples whose “marriage is an exclusive loving commitment”. Odd, really: if unrestrained inclusion is good enough for the bishop and his diocese why isn’t it good enough for same-sex couples?

So far, two liberal bishops – Chapman and Bird – have wailed, gnashed their teeth and profusely apologised for this decision; I wonder why we haven’t heard from any conservative bishops?

From here:

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Undoubtedly you have now heard about the House of Bishops statement, which is to be presented at the upcoming Council of General Synod (CoGS) – a body which functions as General Synod between General Synods, not unlike our Diocesan Council.

The House of Bishop’s statement recognizes the near impossibility of attaining a two-thirds majority that would support revising the marriage canon to allow for same gendered couples to be married in our churches. A two-thirds majority is canonical requirement to change or alter doctrine. The bishops felt that CoGS ought to be notified of this apparent reality rather than be caught by surprise. I agree – the more transparent we are the better it is for the communities of faith we serve. I think it would be disrespectful to keep this knowledge hidden. However, please know that the motion will be placed before General Synod. The bishop’s statement was not an attempt to thwart due process but an attempt to be forthright and honest. The motion will be placed before General Synod assembly.

You can well imagine that I was one of those present who was “mortified”. One judges the fullness of a decision, activity or sacrament in the name of Jesus by its fruit. If a same gendered marriage is rooted in self giving love; if this marriage is an exclusive loving commitment one to the other in good times and bad until death; if this marriage is joining of families together as one, and if this same gendered marriage is embraced as a sacred covenant between two individuals and God; then it is a holy marriage before God. Needless to say, this is not shared by two-thirds of the House of Bishops. Yet, my assumption is that a very significant majority of people in the Diocese of Ottawa would affirm same gendered holy marriage solemnized through the liturgies of our Church.

I want to extend my deep apology to all those who are feeling discouraged, angry, betrayed, and hurt. I especially want to apologize to the LGTBQ community. Many of us did our very best to ensure that your voice was heard, understood, respected, and honoured at the recent House meeting. We were unsuccessful, and for that I am so sorry!

The mystery of the Incarnate Christ is indeed that – a mystery. We wrestle and struggle with what it means for us to be faithful to Jesus. The Church is naturally not a tidy place. While I too am deeply unhappy with the House of Bishop’s lack of clarity on this matter, I will continue on in prayer, debate, and witness to what I believe to be an appropriate position. That is, all people regardless of gender are welcome to share in the sacrament of holy matrimony. I encourage all those who share my disappointment, as well as those who are pleased with the statement, to also continue in prayer, debate, and witness.

The Diocese of Ottawa has typically extended an inclusive hand to all people. We were among the first dioceses to openly support the right of divorced persons to remarry in the church, to welcome women to the sacred office of deacon, priest and bishop in Christ’s Church, and to extend the courtesy to all gay and lesbian peoples to have their civil marriages blessed in the church. May I suggest that we continue down this path of hospitality and inclusion and, even in the midst of our disappointment, go forward to our upcoming General Synod advocating for a revised marriage canon that would allow for same gendered marriage in our Church. This is what we do! We do not walk away discouraged and leave others behind to carry on. We witness together accepting the differences that exist between us and pray for God’s constant presence, guidance, and comfort.

Please pray for all who are affected by this statement and please pray for our upcoming General Synod and the Diocese of Ottawa.

Yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. John H. Chapman,
9th Bishop of Ottawa

And here:

“I want to extend my deep apology to all those who are feeling discouraged, angry, betrayed, and hurt. I especially want to apologize to the LGTBQ community. Many of us did our very best to ensure that your voice was heard, understood, respected, and honoured at the recent House meeting. We were unsuccessful, and for that I am so sorry!”

-The Rt. Rev. John H. Chapman
Bishop of Ottawa

The Anglican Church of Canada starts wobbling on the Marriage Canon decision

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Although the Canadian house of bishops have tried to squash a resolution to change the marriage canon to allow same-sex couples to marry, it seems it yet lives. From this communique, it is clear that liberals in the ACoC have not given up.

Michael Thompson, General Secretary of the General Synod, spoke to any possible confusion about the responsibility of the CoGS to forward a resolution for the consideration of General Synod. “C003 was clear in requiring that a resolution proposing a change to the Marriage Canon to accommodate same-sex marriage be placed before General Synod in 2016. CoGS established a commission – chaired by the late Canon Robert Falby – to bring a report to the church. The Council of General Synod has received the report, This Holy Estate. It includes a draft resolution, the text of which will be reviewed by the Council of General Synod at its meeting that begins next Thursday, March 10.”

Dean Peter Wall of the Diocese of Niagara, co-chair of the Planning and Agenda Team for the Council, noted that he is asking members of the Planning and Agenda team to convene by teleconference to develop a process by which CoGS might engage the communication from the House of Bishops. In his additional role as Chair of the General Synod Planning Committee, Wall also affirmed that all the members of the General Synod, including the Order of Bishops, will be asked to listen to one another with care in preparing to address the resolution. “I do not believe that the work of the General Synod can be pre-empted by a meeting of the House of Bishops alone. It is when they meet as the Order of Bishops, in conversation with the Orders of Clergy and Laity, that bishops participate in the shared responsibility of all members of the General Synod to take a decision on this matter.”

 

Bishop Michael Bird responds to Marriage Canon decision

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The Canadian House of Bishops cannot muster the 2/3rds majority it would need to pass a motion to change the marriage canon to accommodate same-sex couples. Here is the reaction from the liberal Diocese of Niagara’s Michael Bird. Interestingly, he notes that “many” of the bishops did not agree with the amendment.

TO THE CLERGY AND PEOPLE OF THE DIOCESE OF NIAGARA

My dear friends:

It is with deep sadness and regret that I write this letter to you today. As you know we in Niagara have and continue to work very hard to give life and bear faithful witness to our baptismal promise that calls us to “seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being.” This past week the Canadian House of Bishops has just concluded a special meeting on proposed changes to our national Marriage Canon, changes that I personally believe seek to uphold this sacred dignity in the sacrament of marriage for those who identify as LGBTQ2.

It is apparent, however, that many of my fellow bishops cannot support the proposal at this time, as indicated by this declaration: “In our exploration of these differences it became clear to us that the draft resolution to change the Marriage Canon to accommodate the marriage of same-sex partners is not likely to pass in the Order of Bishops by the canonical requirement of a 2/3rds majority in each Order.”

While I believe this assessment to be true, I know how disturbing this will be for so many in our diocese and beyond. I want to say how deeply sorry I am that this is the case and my heart aches for all who continue to be wounded by the words and actions of our Church. I am one of the bishops at this meeting who was, as a statement by the House of Bishops puts it, “mortified and devastated by this realisation.”

I take heart in the commitment by the House of Bishops to “explore other options for honouring and fully embracing covenanted, faithful same-sex relationships.” Over the coming months I intend to prayerfully explore what that might mean for all of us in Niagara. I know that your voices and those representing Canadian Anglicans at General Synod will offer important insights about where the Spirit is leading us at this moment in the life of our Church.

As your bishop I will continue to do all in my power to seek and bear witness to the transformational power of God’s inclusive love so that the dream of equal marriage will be realized. Please remember those impacted by this news in your prayers along with those who will participate in General

Anglican Church of Canada backs away from Marriage Canon change

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It appears that a change to the Marriage Canon to allow marrying same-sex couples is unlikely to get the votes it would need from bishops at the next General Synod in July this year.

Bishops who support the change are mortified and devastated but conversations will continue – when do they not? – and “other options for honouring and fully embracing committed, faithful same-sex relationships” will be explored.

I’m quite surprised.

From here:

In our exploration of these differences it became clear to us that the draft resolution to change the Marriage Canon to accommodate the marriage of same-sex partners is not likely to pass in the Order of Bishops by the canonical requirement of a 2/3rds majority in each Order. Some of us talked of being mortified and devastated by this realisation. We feel obliged to share this with the Council of General Synod as they give consideration to the process for handling this resolution at General Synod. We have grappled with this issue for three meetings of the House, and we feel a responsibility to convey our inability to come to a common mind in discerning what the Spirit is saying to the Church. We share this out of respect for the considerable work that the Church has invested in preparing to debate this motion at General Synod. We continue to wonder whether a legislative procedure is the most helpful way of dealing with these matters.

We have been conscious that the presence of this motion has brought distress to some, and we acknowledge the deep pain that our statement will cause both within and beyond the Church. And we are all saddened that we do not seem capable of unity on this issue. Nevertheless we are committed to work toward the deeper unity for which Christ died, and we pray daily that God would mend our divisions. Our hope is not in ourselves, but in Christ, and so we are committed to staying together that we might witness the miracle of our healing.

In our deliberations, we affirmed a commitment to continuing conversations and engagement with the Report of the Commission on the Marriage Canon, and to achieving the greatest pastoral generosity possible. There is a desire among us to explore other options for honouring and fully embracing committed, faithful same-sex relationships. We will also engage Indigenous and minority cultural perspectives in our Anglican family in our understanding of marriage.

United Church boycott helps to lay off hundreds of Palestinian workers

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In 2013 the United Church of Canada voted to boycott the Israeli company, SodaStream, because it had a factory in the West Bank and the United Church, demonstrating all the political astuteness usually ascribed to mainline churches, has decided that such Israeli settlements are the “principal obstacle to peace in the region.”

From here:

Canada’s largest Protestant church targeted three Israeli companies with operations in Jewish settlements for economic sanctions and boycott.

Last week, the United Church of Canada’s governing General Council approved the start of a boycott campaign, encouraging “economic action” against Keter Plastic, SodaStream and Ahava.

As a result of the boycott, the SodaStream factory has been closed and 500 Palestinians have been laid off.

Another triumph for ecclesiastical social justice.

From here:

The chief executive of SodaStream International Ltd. says he has been forced to lay off hundreds of Palestinian workers after a factory was targeted by an international boycott movement and moved from the West Bank into Israel.

CEO Daniel Birnbaum said the last 74 Palestinian workers left Monday after being denied permits to work inside Israel at the new factory.

The global boycott movement seeks to ostracize Israel by lobbying corporations, artists and academic institutions to sever ties with the Jewish state.

In all, about 500 Palestinians lost their jobs after the factory moved last year following a high-profile boycott campaign against SodaStream.

The Anglican problem condensed into two words – for me

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Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, tells us that marrying same-sex couples will continue in TEC because it is not contrary to the core doctrine of the church.

More specifically, he says that “For me, marriage is not part of core doctrine”. Therein lies the problem: he is unconcerned whether marriage is actually part of core doctrine or not because for him it isn’t. Truth is relative, doctrine is solipsistic, what is doctrine for me may not be for you. Objective truth doesn’t exist or is, at best unknowable and irrelevant – at least, it is for him.

No matter how heavily they disguise it as piety, the fact remains that TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada have constructed their own perverse doctrinal house of cards; it is already falling about their ears and the faster if falls, the more furiously the bishops, like demented gargoyles, hack at the foundations.

To look on the bright side, though: But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD

From here (my emphasis):

Many believed that marriage is part of core doctrine.  No individual church can change core doctrine.  Many felt that the expansion of who may be married on our part was a change in church doctrine.  Therefore it was in part on that basis that many felt that we had overstepped our authority as a province. I didn’t agree with that but I respect that that was the understanding of many.  For me, marriage is not part of core doctrine. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is core doctrine.  The doctrine of who Jesus Christ is – wholly God and wholly human – is doctrine.  The articles of the Creeds are doctrine.  The Holy Scriptures and the Old and New Testament are core doctrine.  Other sections of the Chicago– Lambeth Quadrilateral are core doctrine. Marriage is a sacramental right, it is a solemn and sacred matter of faith and practice.  But it is not core doctrine.

Fred Hiltz personally agrees with same-sex marriage

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The following article is a summary of what transpired during a question and answer session following the recent Queer Eucharist that Hiltz presided at.

The whole thing is worth a read because it illustrates well the morally chaotic universe the Anglican Church of Canada inhabits. A universe where a Primate’s personal view of same-sex marriage is at odds with the religion he is supposed to represent, where telling someone homosexual activity is wrong amounts to abuse, where the main purpose of the church appears to be not only to affirm whatever its members do no matter what but to provide them a safe space in which to do it.

From the attendees at the session, it is once again apparent that ACoC clergy promote gay marriage so strenuously because so many of them are, themselves, married to a person of the same sex.

I do see a bright future ahead for the Anglican Church of Canada, though: not so much as a church but as a gay dating agency for unattached clergy.

“All of us belong to God,” said Canon Douglas Graydon to Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, at a gathering held to discuss same-sex marriage in the Canadian church. “The question is whether we belong to the church.”

It was a question many LGBTQ Anglicans brought forward in a question and answer session that took place after a talk Hiltz gave following the “queer Eucharist” service hosted monthly at the Anglican Church of St. John’s West Toronto.

Passions ran high in the hour-long conversation, moderated by Graydon, an associate priest at St. John’s who is in a same-sex marriage. The event saw about 150 people—including several LGBTQ clergy from the diocese of Toronto—come forward to share stories of pain and discrimination, and to call on the church to honour their struggle and their equality.

“What I want from our bishops, and from our primate, is the kind of language that restores hope, that will allow a 17-year-old thinking that suicide is maybe better, to say, ‘No—no, there is hope,’” said the Rev. Alison Kemper (deacon), a professor at Ryerson University. “We are who we are, and if the Anglican church chooses to deny us, we will get married, and we will have careers and we will have churches. What you need to do is claim your authenticity as our leader.”

Her thoughts were seconded by her wife, the Rev. Joyce Barnett, incumbent at St. Matthias, Bellwoods, who stressed the importance of publicly calling out homophobia and exclusion.

[….]

The most pointed question, however, came at the end of the evening, when a young woman named Jessica Davis-Sydor asked Hiltz about his personal views on the issue.

“I never actually heard you come out and say that you supported, that you support what is going on, that you are fighting to try and get same-sex marriage in the church,” she said. “Do you fully support it, deep down, what is happening?”

Hiltz responded by saying that while he personally supports same-sex marriage in the Anglican church, his position as president of General Synod places limitations on what he can or cannot say as a representative of the Canadian church.